John Lars Zwerenz

Paul (Ode To A Teacher) - Poem by John Lars Zwerenz

PAUL (Ode To A Teacher)

Young, aesthetic bound, painting sage, Of a horse-ridden canopy, of a timeless age, Your azures, carmines, your expansive huesDot with diamond stars firmaments of blues, And the bows of fair Maidens who listen as they roveTo your Siren songs by the dappled groveWhich seep like honey into their hearts, Instilling virtue, form and ruling dartsLaced with heaven's truth, its wine.

They pass beneath the academic trees, On the campuses of high schools, colleges, the vine, Learning of our Catholic waysIn an embryonic, open hazeAs roses aloft, graced by your loversWho dwell on pages, gilded, sown.

And the student discovers On glaciated glades Bewitching serenadesBefore unknown.

Of darkness or elation, The empirical tabulationOf your bounteous knowingDescends as whispering images, snowflakes.And the drifting white mounds, forever growing, Where angelic sounds ring from cathedral heightsAwakesThe flickering, ascending lightsIn the ageless torpor of the young, Those wind-blown, wavering, open flowersTo new rhapsodies in time, to literary bowersWhere consummating songs have yet to be sung.